Master of the Coffin Wall
Overcome by the living dead, the Claws were defeated. They awoke to find themselves in darkness, bound in a cavern high atop Hanging Coffin Gorge. A voice spoke to them from the darkness, telling them that they should not have challenged the power of Yao the Unclean. Huong Shun knew the voice, and the man to which it belonged- it was his long-lost brother, Fu Shang.
Fu Shang was now an apprentice of Yao the Unclean, and under his command intended to kill the prisoners before they could interfere in the sorceror’s plans. Huong Shun reasoned with his brother, talking to him about the bond of blood, and evils of his sorcerous ways. Shang began to bend to his brother’s will, revealing that Yao was sending “the River Dead” to destroy the Chu-held city of Kui. He tried to convince Huong Shun that they would have to swear not to challenge Yao or interfere with his plans if he were to free them. Huong Shun chided his younger brother, telling him that serving Yao was dishonorable, and that the Claws could swear no such oath.
Ashamed of himself in the face of his brother’s honor, Fu Shang released the Claws from their bonds. The apprentice was tortured with guilt, however, for the evils he’d committed in the sorceror’s name. No sooner had Fu Shang cut his brother free than he looked him in the eye one last time and then threw himself from the top of the Coffin Wall into the gorge below.
This final act by Fu Shang awoke the hanging dead once again, and the Claws were forced to retreat deeper into the Cavern of Yao the Unclean. Within the darkened passages they soon came across captives of the sorceror, including their old enemy Tze Shi. He begged for release, but they ignored him and went further into the mountain. soon they found an icy gate and the survivors of Ping Shan village, made slaves to the gate’s guardian- the ferocious demon Xiong Yaoguai, Master of the Coffin Wall.
After a desperate battle, the Claws defeated Yaoguai and freed the villagers, but destroyed the gate in the process. An Gao’s spirit ancestors scolded him for this, but as usual he ignored them. Together with their newfound charges, the Claws of Ba escaped the icy caverns and returned to the gorge, their eyes turned toward the rising sun, and Kui.
